Gripped: A Stepbrother Romance (Bonus Story: Stepbrother Forbidden) (3 page)

Worse yet, Vera was dying. Losing her would be like losing my mother all over again. Even though I’d come to terms with her impending death, I didn’t relish the day I’d have to face that actuality. Things could be better. Way,
way
better. But this was my life. Watching a woman I’d grown to love die. Pushed into an unwanted, loveless marriage to appease my grief-stricken father’s need to rebuild a family.

The path took a sharp bend. As I rounded the curve, a runner materialized right in front of me. I slipped and fell as I dodged to avoid the collision, landing on my hip and forearm.

I cried out, mostly from the shock since the bushes and mushy earth softened the blow to my body.

“Shit. Mac. Are you OK?”

I opened my mouth to answer but only a squeak of surprise came out when strong hands hauled me up from the floor. Reid’s face, covered in sweat and twisted in concern, was close to mine.

“Are you OK?” he repeated.

“Yes,” I said, but it was a lie. I was far from OK. My heart hammered in my chest because of how close his body was to mine. The heat of his skin seeped through my jacket and shirt, touching me all over. I squirmed in his arms, unwilling to endure his closeness anymore. “Put me down. I can stand.”

He set me to my feet but he didn’t let go of my upper arms.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t see you.”

I stepped away out of his touch. “That’s fine. I wasn’t paying attention either.”

He eyed the muddy sections of my jacket and pointed at it.

“Does anything hurt?”

The concern in his voice and cobalt eyes for my welfare wasn’t helping matters where my feelings for him were concerned. When did he become like this? The Reid of the past would have sneered and told me to watch where I was going next time. Then he’d carried on running without a backward glance. That was the Reid I had learnt to handle. This caring one who stared at me, who looked like he was ready to pick me up and carry me all the way home in his arms whether I liked it or not was far more dangerous.

I frowned as I brushed the clumps of mud away from my jacket. Then I flicked the strands of hair that had escaped my loose ponytail away from my face.

“I told you I’m fine.” I fiddled with the camera, making sure everything was still in working condition. When I raised my head I found Reid eyeing the camera, a half-smile tugging at his lips.

“You still have that?”

My unease ebbed and pride took its place as I touched Betsy. In one of his rare moments of generosity, Reid had given her to me over ten years ago when he’d won her in a contest. She was my best friend ever since.

“Yeah.” I smiled, patting the bulky camera hanging from the straps around my neck. “She’s taken a few knocks but she’s still serviceable.”

Far away down the path, the man and his dog were now a dot in the distance. Right. Pictures. I threw another small smile at Reid and gestured with my thumb I was continuing on.

“Are you heading to the lighthouse?” he asked.

“Er…yeah.”
Please don’t come, please don’t come, please don’t—

“I’ll come with you.” He moved forward, not waiting to see if I’d follow.

“You don’t have to.”
I don’t want to be around you because I can’t trust myself with you.
“You can just get back to your run.”

He paused and threw a grin over his shoulder at me that spurred my calming heart back into a gallop.

“No matter how hard you try you’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

I let out a huff and followed him. Boy, if he ever knew how much he was right.

CHAPTER SIX

Mackenzie

“Mom always loved this trail.”

I glanced up at Reid. After walking for a few minutes in quiet anxiety about what to say to him, I was relieved he’d finally broken the silence.

His features were devoid of any emotion. Reid had always been the living embodiment of the phrase ‘still waters run deep.’ Not like me who practically wore her heart outside her body all the time.

But I knew how much he loved and respected Vera. To say Reid had an unpleasant childhood was an understatement. Neither Vera nor Reid had spoken about it much, but snippets of things they’d said had revealed a past filled with hardship and abuse from Reid’s dad. Vera was all he had for a long time until Dad and I came into their lives fourteen years ago when he was thirteen and I ten.

I smiled as I took a deep lungful of the cool air surrounding us.

“She loved fall a lot too.”

It was disturbing talking about Vera as though she were already gone. She only had a few weeks left, but she was still alive, still capable of saying a few things when she had a bit of energy. And as if Reid felt upset about the same thing too, he changed the topic to something else that was equally uncomfortable.

“So when are you getting married?”

I took some time to respond. “Three weeks from now.”

He came to an abrupt halt and I turned to face him.

“That’s pretty soon, Mac. How long have you even known this guy?”

I scowled. “What’s wrong with you? This is the second time you’re criticizing my choices when you haven’t even met my fi—Tom.”

He folded his arms, the soft material of his light-grey hoodie stretching taut over his muscular arms. His forearms were exposed and it was a fight to drag my eyes away from them to meet his face. Having feelings for your stepbrother was bad enough. Having a forearm fetish especially for your own stepbrother’s forearms was just downright ridiculous.

“That’s because you always make terrible choices,” he said, eyeing me with condescension. What bugged me in that moment was not how he looked at me, but the way my whole body seemed to sizzle with awareness. Only Reid ever made me feel like this, even when he was being a giant, arrogant
ass
. After years of being apart, he was finally here with me again, arguing with me like always, like if he’d never left.

My fingers ached to touch him. I curled them in tight against my palms inside my jacket pockets. This was neither the time nor place. There would never be the time or place to touch him the way I’ve always wanted to.

“You can drop the overprotective brother shtick now,” I said in bored tones. “And I especially don’t need relationship advice from you, Mr. Avoids Commitment Like the Plague.”

He shrugged. “I see no problem with fucking someone and then forgetting about them.”

“Wow,” I said, shaking my head. “That’s pretty crass. And more than a little disappointing.”

“Life is pretty crass and disappointing, sis.”

“You’ve become bitter,” I said.

He dropped his hands to his sides and stepped closer, towering over me, blatantly crowding my personal space. This was new and strange and terrifying. Reid had never been this close to me willingly. More often than not, he sought ways to be as far away from me as possible. Case in point: leaving home to be a bounty hunter many years ago and never looking back.

“You’re still naive.” His voice seemed to ghost over my skin and I shivered. “Clueless.”

Somewhere in the distance, a dog barked and a few birds shot out of the trees, taking flight. The air had dampened, a sign of impending rainfall. Reid’s eyes were as stormy and conflicted as the slowly darkening sky. I wondered if he heard how hard my heart was beating right now.

The weighty silence between us stretched on. Then his gaze dipped to my lips. My insides squeezed in surprise and anticipation.

Do it. Kiss me.

We shouldn’t. He’s my stepbrother.

I don’t care.

I don’t care.

He lifted his hand, reaching for my face.

I closed my eyes. Held my breath. Waited.

Yearned for his lips against mine.

And then my mobile phone rang. The sharp trill of the phone broke that sweet, intense moment between us. Reid retracted from me like if I were fire and he the idiot standing too close to it. Disappointment weighed on my chest like a thick, heavy mass. I retrieved my phone from my pocket.

I forced a smile. “It’s Tom.”

“Right.” He gave a quick nod, avoiding my gaze. “Well, you answer that and I’ll get back to my run.”

He took off without waiting for my response.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Reid

I fucked up.

Nearly fucked up if we wanted to split hairs. Coincidence saved me.

Maybe Mackenzie’s mobile phone going off at the exact moment I was about to cover her sweet mouth with mine wasn’t a coincidence but a divine hand at work. I wasn’t religious, but I was pretty sure that some power out there knew it was all kinds of wrong to even *think* about messing around with your stepsister, let alone act on it.

I got dressed, trying to ignore the sound of her voice as she spoke with Harry downstairs. The almost-kiss happened two days ago and since then I’d been doing my best to avoid her company. It wasn’t hard. I had errands to run on behalf of my mother and I had old friends to catch up with. I had nowhere to be this evening, but I figured there was nothing wrong with putting my rental car to good use.

I hurried down the stairs, heading straight for the front door. Mac appeared at the arched entryway into the living room.

“Reid! Where are you going?”

“Out for a drive,” I said, facing her. She wore a floral dress with an apron over it, her hair in a low bun. She even had on pearl earrings and necklace. She was stunning but far too Stepford Wives-ish for my tastes. I preferred when she was wearing tight jeans that showed off her sexy curves. I definitely liked when her hair was free and flowing down her shoulders, tempting me to run my fingers through it.

“But you can’t leave,” she said, a slight undertone of panic in her voice. “Tom’s coming over for dinner.”

I scowled. “And?”

Her features matched mine. “And you have to stay to meet him.”

I shook my head. “Nope. Not interested in meeting your guy.” I turned to open the door then jerked away in surprise when she launched herself at it, slamming it shut. She glared up at me, her chocolate-brown eyes shiny with determination.

“You’re staying,” she said, her voice soft yet with tinted with an undercurrent of steel. “Or I’ll tell Dad about the Mustang.”

For a moment, I’m confused by her threat when it all came back. Oh. Yeah. Many years ago I’d crashed Harry’s prized car. Mac was the only one who knew. While I was freaking myself out with the ways Harry would kill me when he found out, Mac was the smart one to report the car stolen so no traces were led back to me.

I smirked at her, amused she was still using that old blackmail.

“Mac, do you think I’d care if you told Harry about that? He wouldn’t even give a shit about it either.”

She folded her arms. “Oh yeah? Well, why don’t we put that to the test?”

She called out for Harry and when he appeared with a bemused smile on his face, she looked between him and me.

“Dad,” she began. “You know, I’ve always had something important to tell you.”

Holy shit, she was going to tell him. After being at odds for years with Harry, I wasn’t sure I relished the idea of his disappointment in me. He had had a deep love for that car. If he found out that all these years, it was his loser stepson who had crashed his red beauty and not some thief, I’m sure the tentative friendship we’d acquired these past few days would die a quick death.

Fine. If she wanted me to stay so badly to see her stupid fiance, then I’d stay.

“Fine,” I said, glaring at her. “I’ll stay for dinner.”

Her smile was too smug and too tempting. I wanted to push her up against the front door and punish her for blackmailing me. But Harry was there.

And she was my stepsister.

Right.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Reid

Naturally, I hated Tom and his guts the instant I saw him. I wanted to grab a fistful of his gelled blond hair while I punched him in the stomach. The various acts of violence I wanted to enact on my stepsister’s fiance as we sat down to dinner was alarming and disturbing.

He was not the type of man Mac was used to dating. Instead of it giving me calm, it gave me indigestion. Or maybe that bit was Mac’s burnt steaks. She was a lovely, kind, generous woman, but she often didn’t do well in the cooking department. At least the mashed potatoes were good. So I munched on those moodily as Tom’s smooth face, smooth suit and smooth voice irritated me more and more the longer I was in his presence.

If Mom was here, no doubt she’d be poking fun at the way Tom wiped his mouth after every bite, or how he sat ramrod straight as though something large and stiff was shoved up his—

“So, Reid, tell me, how is life on the other side of the law?” Tom laughed at his own weak joke, the sound hollow and practised. Mac smiled, her lips stretched across her teeth like if some invisible pair of fingers yanked at the corners of her mouth.

“Decent,” I said on a bite of boiled carrots.

“Mackenzie tells me your work allows you to travel the world. I confess I’m quite envious.”

“Too true,” said Harry with a nod.

My gaze slid to Mac before moving to Tom again.
Trust me, I’m ‘quite envious’ of you too, buddy.

“Though I suppose my work in criminal law holds far more stability and prestige,” Tom continued.